Thursday, September 29, 2011

Souper Jenny, around the corner, has the best soups, sandwiches, cookies & I always have to stand in line, and never care.

Between appointments this week, I got to Souper Jenny & saw her cute new food truck. Made me want one for Landscape Design.
.
POUTING, I had to leave Souper Jenny without a visit to Boxwoods. Had to get back on-the-job with a client.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Top pic from Velvet & Linen while at Boxwoods. More Pouting, I only get to do this 1-2x's/year, or less.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Her face so lost I didn't recognize it. Ellen Barkin is in a new movie, "____ Year".

If opera is an intensification of reality; a garden is opera.
.Manohla Dargis on Barkin's movie character, "....a refugee from the ordinary..."
.
Quite nice. A sentiment, a lifestyle I discovered in my garden decades ago.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Pic from Cam Archer/Cinemad Presents in New York Times.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

"...Sir Timothy...after a night of high wind had brought down 2 magnificent elm tress on the edge of the ha-ha.... It was a sad sight. The trees were lying with their roots upended and their trunks slanting across the ditch to the ruin of broken branches and smashed twigs on the lower level. Sir Timothy ...as much distressed as if they had been the only trees he possessed. There were tears in his eyes as he kept repeating: 'Wouldn't have lost them for the worlds! Known them all my life. Opened my eyes upon them, in fact, for I was born in that room there. ....It's this damned sunk fence is to blame. No root room on one side. Wouldn't have lost them for the worlds!'". Flora Thompson, Lark Rise to Candleford.

Written of an era a century old, and a true story, I love Sir Timothy.

Clients & friends, calling me through the years, "Tara, my tree died." Then tears. Women of course. But men too. Successful men, trophy house, car, family, and they are still the little boy within. In grief they remember me, someone who will understand. I've cried with them all.
.
No, not many will tell family, friends, co-workers, "Called my garden designer today, we cried about losing my tree."
.
You do understand these are big trees, over a century, with energy giving spirit.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Pics from BBC

Saturday, September 24, 2011

More, her garden has a herd of 40-50 deer daily. Boxwood are her solution, along with "allium, nepeta, Solomon's seal, jack-in-the-pulpit & hellebore."
.
The New York Times had a lovely, rich article about her last May. They have a slide show of pics with it too.
.
You won't be disappointed. This article & pics have stuck in my mind/heart since it was published.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Pic from New York Times, by Randy Harris

Friday, September 23, 2011

There was a time I paid attention to cliche's about roses. Needy, needy, needy.

Wrong, the best roses are tough, tough, tough.
.
Choose a rose KNOWN to be good in your area for at least 2 decades. Buying from the supercenter or asking someone who mows grass for a living isn't an option. Would you ask your dermatologist about heart palpitations?
.
I went to my local Rose Society to discover the BEST roses. Climbing 'Dortmund', above, was one of the choices. It's never watered, fertilized, or sprayed with chemicals yet it blooms early summer till frost in my garden with pretty hips throughout fall.
.Hartwood Roses is a delightful nursery. They WANT you to have the BEST roses for your zone/garden.
.
Connie, of Hartwood Roses, sent this note yesterday:
.

This is a quick message to remind you that this Saturday, September 24, 2011, is the final scheduled open nursery day of the 2011 season.Even though the summer heat and dryness was hard on the garden (and the gardener) there are quite a few roses in bloom to see if you are planning to visit to choose your roses in person.

Here is an offer for those of you who do not live nearby that may help you to decide to buy the roses you have been waiting order.All rose orders placed from now until October 7 will get half-price shipping!Orders will be calculated manually and invoiced to reflect the reduced shipping cost.

Please remember thatI have decided to take a year off from mass propagation of next year’s crop to concentrate on other aspects of the Hartwood Roses mission that I have not had the time to develop.Stay tuned for details of planned workshops and hands-on demonstrations to help you learn to grow better roses.There will be a few new rose varieties available next spring, along with the roses that carry over from this year, but not in the quantities that are usually available.

The realities of the current economy have been hard on the nursery business.Hartwood Roses will continue to exist, but it must evolve to reflect the new reality of reduced time and interest in rose gardening, especially heirloom varieties of roses, and tighter household budgets.I have worked too hard to build this business and its reputation to throw in the towel because times are hard.

On a more positive note, if you are in the area and want to see the debut of my new program, “How To Grow Beautiful Climbing Roses”, plan to visit the Richmond Rose Society meeting this Sunday, September 25, at 2pm, in the auditorium of Children’s Hospital.(Click HERE for address and directions).

In closing, I would like to thank you for your support of Hartwood Roses, as it grows and changes to meet today’s challenges.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Vegetables, herbs, fruits, water, livestock, above, all close.
.
Sustainable meant a lot more in this era. Lose your crops/livestock & your family could die.
.
Keeping things close is easier maintenance & to protect. Obvious but overlooked.
.
Often I'm asked to site a playset or child's vegetable garden. The requests arrive with a wave of the hand pointing to the back, somewhere. Somewhere.
.
Patio/deck areas are often a sunny spot. Perfect for a vegetable garden in large pots, 24" diameter, with several things stuffed into each. Ha, yes, I site the pots too.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.Notice the Landscape Design tool in the pic? All the lines: fence, trees, vegetables, herbs, paths, dependencies are lined exactly parallel or perpendicular with the home.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Few peonies do well in the South. Martha Tate's, Mrs. Roosevelt, below.

Martha Tate has, Garden Photo Of The Day. It's new & fabulous.
.
Martha is a real gardener. I trust her instincts.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Martha & I have the good fortune to share a friendship with an E.M. Forster type character, Mrs. Moore, from Passage To India fame. In her 90's Margaret Moseley mentors us both.
.
Pic by Martha Tate.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Dozens of cardboard boxes holding 6-8 potted plants, in full perfection of bloom.
.
It was my good fortune to strip the tape off all the boxes & be the 1st to look inside. Of course it was my job to get them off the 18-wheeler truck, by myself, and into the shop too.
.
Cellophane sleeves were removed & I set the plants on various display shelves according to the lite they needed. As the week passed I removed spent blossoms, watered and pulled off yellowing leaves. And poof, all the plants were sold.
.This wasn't a sissy job, I also handled trees, shrubs, groundcovers, annuals, perennials, statuary, potting up 3 gallon roses, hand-watering, sales, accounts payable/receivable, deposits, & etc.
.
I wish you could experience those boxes of gloxinia, cineraria, freesia, & etc. Pure abundance of beauty.
.
This story is over 25 years old, and I've never seen such decadence in abundance of those flowers again.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Pics via It's About Time.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

From the old organ she saved 2 of the largest pipes. For me & my sister.

A freshman in college, I skipped my senior year of high school, I asked Grandma why she saved the pipes.

She said, "For your garden."
.
Ha, smart enough to get into college early I saw zero use for an old organ pipe in any garden of mine.
.
Regret is carried in the form of fantasizing where I would put an organ pipe focal point in my garden. Better, having conversations with Grandma about where to 'site' the organ pipe. Of course it's very Amy Tan, The Hundred Secret Senses, Grandma's been dead almost 3 decades.
.
The Wall Street Journal had an article recently about old pipe organs being discarded. No good, I want the EXACT pipe Grandma saved for me
.
We all get back to our own Rosebud.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Pics from Wall Street Journal

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

"...Dr. Shiva founded the Navdanya, a movement to protect the diversity and integrity of living resources, especially native seeds. Dr. Shiva's attention is now focused on preventing imperialism over life itself. "I don't want to live in a world where five giant companies control our food and our health"
.
From the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center comes 'regenerative' a new & better choice than 'sustainable'.
.
Interesting. The winds are changing. Refining.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Pic taken last week, future site of Ancient Orchard. Alice Waters is at the Expo & many others.

Monday, September 12, 2011

Russell Page, "You design a garden within all the limitations of a site, of a client's requirement, the climate and the nature of the soil, of the local culture and of your own capacities as artist and technician. All of this is, with practice, relatively straightforward, but if your garden is to have 'magic' you have to take your work further and give it an extra dimension." from The Education of a Gardener.

Beyond this lawn, above, I was asked to put in an ancient orchard.
.
Getting it right didn't mean making my client happy, getting the new 'ancient orchard' in a magazine or book, or on TV.
.
Getting it right, for me, meant creating MAGIC.
.
"....but if your garden is to have 'magic' you have to take your work further and give it an extra dimension. I think that awareness of the interplay between objects, whether organic or inorganic is of major importance if your garden is to be also a work of art." Russell Page.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Pic taken last week. Hope, fervently, more than a few of you know what it is to create magic. Have never done coke, lsd, heroine blah-blah. How they must pale compared to the muse dropping you a bit of magic.

A lucky little girl, loving her Grandma. Penelope's granddaughter, above.
.Penelope Bianchi, known for interior design, is the full package. She designs gardens too. Magic is in the loving life she creates for all entering.
.
This is what I adore about a gardening lifestyle. It meanders thru the layers of life. Nature, travel, loved ones, antiques, pets, a new project, being with old friends, meeting new friends, cooking, solitude, & etc.
.
I adore the sublime inspiration from Penelope's blog. She reminds me of E.M.Forster when he writes of 'resources'.
.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
.
Pics from Penelope's blog. I'm dangerous now, have a picture of an idea for the chicken coop. Of course the bid will come back, budget will say 'no', then I'll connive something fabulous & affordable.